How Is It Like Being Old? Poem by Mohammad Younus

A young lady asks an elderly lady:
What it was like to be old?
...and how do you feel about...
...your years of youth...
...now slipped behind you.

She smilingly says: young lady!
My entire life I've been of the same age;
The voice inside my heart...
...is the same pure and innocent...
....as of a little baby...
...who hasn't as yet learnt to speak;
I am still the same young girl...
...wit deep emotions and hot passions;
I am my big brother's little sister!
I am my mother's sweet daughter!
I am my husband's beautiful wife!
I still see myself sobbing and smiling...
...in my father's cozy lap!
I still dream to grow up and be...
...an old grand mother...
...and a grand mother-in-law!
I have always wondered to feel...
...that I am an immortal being.

You see the wrinkles on my face...
...as creases of a folded paper
No, look into me, I am young inside
My skin may have worn out...
...my faculties of sight, hearing...
...smelling, tasting, speaking, and feeling...
...may have become dull and weak...
But the spirit inside me is young!
It has never got tired!
It's not bound by time!
Spirit never ages! Spirit never dies!

MyKoul

Naheed Muneer